Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

Back Home in Virginia

We are back home after spending about two weeks in the UK. Our friends Michael and Sally Oxlade, whom we met way back in the 1980s when we lived in London, took us everywhere. We had the opportunity to visit Devon, Cornwall, and the Scilly Islands of St Mary’s and Tresco.  Not to mention staying […]

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The Adventure Continues…

At first the weather began to clear. But then… it returned with a vengeance. So, we never made it off the island. Because of bad weather the planes couldn’t fly. So now we are back in the hotel. Until Monday. The good news—It’s a fabulous hotel. After all, there are worse places to get stranded. […]

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Fogged In

At the moment we are fogged in at St Mary’s airport. Our flight, which was originally scheduled for 9:40 AM has been rebooked for a 12:55 flight this afternoon. We’ll see how that works out. In the meantime, judging by the reaction of the crowd waiting for various flights out, this doesn’t seem to be […]

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St Mary’s on the Isle of Scilly

Early in the morning we left the mainland in Cornwall and headed for St Mary’s—one of the Isles of Scilly. Thanks of course to Michael for driving us to the docks in Cornwall so we were able to catch a boat to St Mary’s. . The boat trip was 3 hours long and the sea was […]

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The Moors

Since our arrival in England, we have seen a great deal of the moorlands – high open country where wild ponies run and farm animals graze.  We spent some time in Devon County at Dartmoor National Park, and saw the Tors (rock hills and formations) there as well.   Fortunately, the weather cleared while we were […]

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Some More Time in Cornwall

Another couple of days in Cornwall, and it has been pretty busy. We started off Sunday by going to Mass (and praying for all of you:). Then it was off to breakfast in St Ives, where we missed the rain. Temporarily. The rain eventually won. Anyway, shortly thereafter we headed out once again. This time […]

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Merry Olde England

Well, here we are in Devon, England at the Mill Inn. We had to cancel the first part of our plan which was a Road Scholar trip to Wales. Mary Anne managed to salvage the second part—a visit to see our friends Sally and Michael Oxlade. We have now begun a trip with them through […]

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At the Fairfax County Fair

Fairfax County had its annual county fair this past weekend—and it was packed. There were about a million very young kids there, with parents of course. The makeshift parking lots were stuffed with cars, and at $10 a copy over 4 days, the fair probably did pretty well.  The fair was sponsored by a local […]

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Roll Out Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer—First recorded by Nat King Cole in 1963. So yesterday on July 4th,  in the spirit of Nat King Cole, we went to a baseball game—the visiting Boston Red Sox vs. the Washington Nationals—the home team. In a word, Boston crushed Washington. Just crushed them. Mark Twain […]

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